DOWNEY - Justin Huff was one of those “must-play” kids when he first started playing Pop Warner football at the age of 8.

“You have the guys that play a lot and the guys that get a certain amount of time and that’s it. He was one of those guys,” Downey High head coach Jack Williams said of Huff.

“Yeah, I was just a little thicker, shorter,” laughed Huff at practice Tuesday.

By the time his third season of youth ball came around, Huff was rolling.

“When I actually started playing running back, I started scoring a little more and I liked the feeling of it,” Huff said. “That’s when I started figuring out maybe I could do something with it.”

Fast-forward to the final game of the 2011 season. Huff is a high-school freshman, and was called up from the junior varsity for a playoff game against Righetti. Downey was defeated 31-24, but Huff ran for 165 yards.

A star was born. Huff last season as a sophomore rushed for 2,364 yards and 24 touchdowns on 240 carries. Those are averages of 9.85 yards per carry, and 181.8 per game. The 5-foot-11, 200-pounder helped the Vikings win the CIF-SS Southeast Division title, their first CIF title in 55 years. He was named CIF Offensive Player of the Year in his division, and has become a Division I recruit.

It all blew Williams away.

“The numbers he put up, I don’t know if you can truly believe that anyone can put those numbers up,” he said. “But we knew he was going to be good.”

And just think, when Huff takes the field tonight at 7 at Downey for a season-opener against Mayfair, he’s still going to be just a junior. For some more than others, that is not good news. Take Dominguez coach Keith Donerson, who last Oct. 26 at Downey had to grin and bear it as Huff torched his team for 316 yards rushing and two touchdowns in a 28-12 San Gabriel Valley League victory for the Vikings.

“He’s an outstanding inside runner, an outstanding outside runner,” Donerson said this week. “He can get the ball out of the backfield, he can make you miss, he can get physical. He has all the intangibles of a running back. Now he just needs these next few years to get more experience to be a great college running back and possibly get to the NFL.”

Donerson mentioned the intangibles. One of the things Williams raves about is Huff’s make-up, how he will do anything to make his team better. There is no big-timing going on here just because he is now the man.

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“I would say it’s just him being humble, and wanting to be the best player regardless of whether it’s blocking, playing special teams,” Williams said. “You know, we have to kick him off the field a lot of times during practice. We’ll have our scout team and he’s the first one out there and his response is, ‘Hey, I’m trying to get better, I’m trying to get everyone better.’

“So he’ll do kick returns, punt returns. He’ll play offensive guard if it would help us win.”

It’s a rare fire Huff has in his belly. At times, as he spoke with a reporter, he looked over at his teammates on the practice field. It was like he couldn’t wait to re-join them.

“When I come out here, it’s not just getting me better” he said. “I don’t want to just let the scout team go in and play against the defense. I want to be on the scout team playing against the D, making them better.”

This table is set nicely. Now it’s a matter of how hard Huff is willing to work to increase his worth. He understands he is now being watched, not just by opposing tacklers, but by college recruiters.

“I’m trying to get more than I had last year because if you look at numbers, which they do, if you’re not improving every year, you don’t look like you’re improving,” Huff said.

He also gets the notion that he’s not the only outstanding high-school running back in the nation, Williams said.

“He’s starting to realize it’s going to take a little more hard work,” Williams said. “Him going to these Nike camps (this summer) and competing against these elite running backs in the country, he kind of noticed that, ‘I’ve gotta work a little harder, this guy’s a little bigger, this guy’s a little faster,’ and this and that. But he’s matured.”

Huff’s head sounds like it’s exactly where it needs to be.

“Oh, yeah, camp’s no joke,” he said. “That Nike camp ... this is just Southern California and there are a lot of athletes out here. But you should realize what’s in the nation. You’d be surprised at the competition. If you’re not getting better, the competition is getting better than you. That’s how I see it.”